About
the New RiverDespite its name, there is nothing new about
the New River. In fact, the river is the oldest in the United States
and second-oldest in the world. Ive heard dates of anything
from 10 million to 360 million years," says FONR board member Lynn
Sharp of the Virginia Tech Museum of Natural History. "I usually
just say its ancient.
The New River has its origins in northwestern North
Carolina, near the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. By the time it merges
with the Gauley River in West Virginia near Charleston to form the Kanawha,
it has flowed north through parts of North Carolina, Virginia, and West
Virginia.
In 1998 the New River was designated as one of fourteen
American Heritage Rivers.

Tracing
the Origins of the New Rivers Name

by Kelley Trear
The New River, long in its history and in its length,
has an equally long list of theories on how it obtained its name.
The search for the New Rivers name begins with
early European explorers who happened upon the New River and presumed
that they had found the river that would lead them west to the other side
of the New World. In 1651, Edward Bland sent a pamphlet to London, England
describing the western territories of Virginia and North Carolina, naming
them New Brittaine and New Virginia. Then when he came upon a river that
was unmarked on existing maps, Bland applied the title of New
to it.
Another noted European to see the New River was probably
Colonel Abraham Wood, who sought trade with the Indians in 1654. The river
became known as Woods River until about 1754.
One educated guess regarding the origin of the name
is the theory that in the late 1700s or early 1800s, surveyors were working
their way across the new country. When they happened on the New River,
they discovered that it wasnt on any of their existing maps, so
they charted it and labeled it as a new river. Another version
of this story attributes the label "a new river" to Peter Jefferson,
Thomas Jeffersons father.
The official name change to New River seems to have occurred between 1740
and 1750, although the two names, Woods and New, were used interchangeably
in records and on maps in other states until about 1770.
No one can really say for sure how the New River acquired
its name. But as long as it keeps flowing, there is a chance that someone
will discover how this old river became New. For more
information on the New River and its surrounding land, see The New River
Early Settlement by Patricia Givens Johnson.